


Memory’s Skyscraper: August

by Rikudera



Series: Awakenings verse [5]
Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: M/M, Masochism
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-08-21
Updated: 2012-01-16
Packaged: 2017-10-29 15:39:19
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 10,221
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/321475
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rikudera/pseuds/Rikudera
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“Evidence of the various fights and encounters between Number XIII and the intruder Riku in the area around Memory’s Skyscraper, continuously taped, from first contact to the departure for Twilight Town.” – archivist’s notes</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Tape I (August 23)

**Author's Note:**

> This fic was written before Days came out. It starts on Day 357 of Days, and ends on The Third Day of KH2. If you have any questions about the timeline, please feel free to contact me.
> 
> Many thanks to my beta, wayya.

Riku’s spent too much time here to have the luxury of regretting things now. Things have blurred and blended in his head, to the point that he’s having trouble remembering which pair of blue eyes he wants to get closer to and which pair belongs at the far end of his blade. He blocks and dodges and strikes, both in order to accomplish his goal and because he’d be dead if he didn’t. The tentative truce from before, tacit agreement to eliminate the surrounding Heartless at the base of the building, vanished without a trace as the last Heartless fell, and his opponent’s white, deadly weapon is pointed at him now. It’s only due to Riku catching a Strike Raid in midair that it’s not two of those Keyblades attacking him now, but he doesn’t have much time to ponder the black Keyblade he now wields in his hand before he’s forced to defend himself with it against another flurry of attacks.

As his opponent lunges and slashes with Oathkeeper, Riku tries a block with Oblivion that doesn’t seem to do any good – Riku doesn’t know how he knows the names of these Keyblades, but there’s no possibility that he’s wrong – and the other boy sends him flying across the pavement.

“Why? Why do you have the Keyblade?” If what Naminé told him is right, and it feels right, the only person other than King Mickey that’s supposed to have one is unable to use it and the reason he’s here, fighting. This boy is supposed to be a Nobody, right? So how is it possible?

“Shut up!” The still-hooded boy says harshly, readying his blade for another attack. Riku attempts to retaliate with a blow of his own, but while he is able to stand up and push the other boy back a little, the advantage is short-lived, as another flurry of attacks slowly pushes him until his back is against the side of some nondescript, empty building. The boy’s hood flies off, revealing a blond with forceful blue eyes, but it’s somehow still Riku that is the vulnerable one here. Riku’s an enormous target, brighter, despite his darkness, than any of the glowing, neon signs, a screaming siren as the only being with a beating heart on the entire world. He’s amazed that he’s lasted this long in the first place, but he barely manages to repel the next barrage of rain-slicked, humming metal, parrying the blade with his own, watching it slide to the side and hit the panel of glass behind him.

The glass shatters into a hundred razor-sharp shards that cover the floor of the building Riku suddenly finds himself in, but he just steps backwards over them in order to prepare an attack of his own. In the building, which has cramped aisles of shelving and appears to be some type of never-used market, it’s a mistake, and all he manages to hit with the black Keyblade he somehow still has, for the time being, are boxes off the shelves, before his opponent gets another solid hit in and sends him crashing against the end of one of the metal partitions.

Riku winces visibly and tries to protect the side that was hit as he also prepares to fend off the next barrage, but the blue-eyed boy fighting him notices this and doesn’t let up. With another wicked swipe, Oblivion is hit away from him and skitters on the floor before vanishing. Riku plans to summon Soul Eater – a blade that’s actually _his_ – now, but Oathkeeper smashes against his side once more and causes his legs to give out, leaving him barely propped up against the end of the shelf and fervently hoping that he hasn’t broken any ribs. Oathkeeper changes pointedly into Oblivion and swings deftly one last time, for what the blond boy seems to expect to be the finishing blow, but in a wild, desperate motion – and if Riku was anyone but himself he really _would_ be dead – he catches it by the shaft and tries to wrench it out of the other’s grasp.

The other boy doesn’t seem like he’s going to let go, though, and it appears to be a terrible miscalculation for a moment, before the boy pitches forwards and crashes into Riku, Keyblade dropped in surprise and vanishing from both of their grips. The force of the impact makes Riku’s covered turquoise eyes blink hard once, then open wider than he thought was possible as he stares into the bright coldness of the other boy’s equally shocked blue eyes inches from his own. Riku can’t summon his weapon when their limbs are tangled together like this, the other boy sitting in his lap and pinning his legs to the ground, and his side aches terribly, but all he can do is stare and feel as if he’s falling upside-down into an endless blue sky.

“Sora,” he breathes without thinking, almost in a whisper, that name Naminé told him he should know. And Riku hopes that if he can’t remember who the sleeping boy is supposed to be other than very important, then _this_ boy, whose eyes tug at something deep in Riku’s heart, will know. The boy seems just as shocked as he is in that moment when they stare at each other, but this is evidently the wrong thing to say; the name causes the other boy to grab Riku by the shoulders and slam him against the shelf behind him.

“Shut _up!_ ” the boy says, and Riku’s head is spinning, but he’s glad somewhere that he was able to make someone that’s not supposed to be able to feel respond so vividly. Even as he thinks it, though, the concept feels wrong to him, somehow. That man in the red bandages, DiZ, must be wrong in his analysis because there’s no way someone with eyes so alive doesn’t really exist, the weight of his body pressing forward and down, the warmth of his skin inexplicably seeping through the leather of their coats.

“Sora,” he says again, not caring that he’s also slammed against the shelf again, strangely thrilled to see the anger in those eyes flare up once more. It must be the pain and adrenaline that’s speeding up his breathing like this because he can’t comprehend right now what the point of saying the name of a boy he’s supposed to know to a boy he’s never met before is.

“Stop saying that _name!_ ” the boy shouts, angrier than Riku’s been told is possible, a pale pink dusting over the blond’s cheeks and sending a strange shiver up Riku’s spine. His head is still dizzy and he still aches from the blows he’s received earlier, but all he wants to do is create another reaction. He doesn’t know _why_ he’s doing this and realizes that at this point it’s probably bordering on suicidal, but he feels like he’s started something he doesn’t know how or doesn’t even _want_ to stop.

“Sora,” he just repeats, unable to keep the smile off his face. Those bright blue eyes flash again, and something warm and dangerous pools somewhere inside of Riku. He’s ignoring the warning signs and the pain that the other is silently promising, only knowing somehow that repeating the name will give him something good, even if he can’t define what that thing is right now.

“Don’t _call_ me that!” is the boy’s only response, the expected slam against the shelf just as painful as Riku thought it would be. It only causes Riku to smile again, however, breath sharp and uneven, but with an odd sense of elation that causes his own face to flush. He wonders absently if he has a concussion yet. “I’m _Roxas_ , not-” the boy falters for a second, but this only makes him continue again with more fervor, “-not _him_.” Riku has a name for this blond boy, finally, and doesn’t know why this piece of information is so important, but revels in it nonetheless. Whatever is gathering inside him, letting this boy with the blue eyes – Roxas, or was it still also Sora? – make his head reel like this and make him welcome the shoves and the pressure and the violent weight, he wants it to carry him to its unknown destination.

Riku laughs without knowing why, jagged and just this side of breathless. The hands on his shoulders grip tighter, fury building up once again in the other boy. Moving his face closer, mere inches from Riku’s, pressing all his weight forward and down, pinning Riku’s legs and chest, his mouth is almost in a snarl.

“Why do you keep _calling_ me that?” Roxas asks, blue eyes bright and focused. But then his scowl is gone, and the blond’s mouth turns down suddenly, in a small frown “Who is Sora?” he whispers next, frustrated and younger than Riku’s felt in a long time. A small silence stretches out as Riku realizes just how close they really are, feels the entirety of the other boy’s weight on his chest and in his lap, feels the way their breaths intermingle and the heat of their cheeks.

“I can’t remember,” Riku responds, so quietly that it is barely a breath against Roxas’s lips, and slowly closes the small distance between their mouths. It’s a little surprising for them both, and Roxas tenses against him with wide open eyes, but Riku suddenly realizes that this is what he’d been unaware of, and so he doesn’t back off immediately. It’s actually Riku’s first kiss, despite all the innocence he’s lost over the last year and a half, and it’s comforting that it still manages to feel very new. Something whispers in the dark part of his heart that Riku doesn’t have _any_ innocence left to give to boys with blue eyes, but Riku has his blindfold for things like that, so this is new, this is innocent. The kiss is strangely sweet in contrast to their previous fight, but as he takes the slowly relaxing grip on his shoulders and the closing blue eyes as a sign to move a hand to the back of Roxas’s head, he’s met with a sudden resistance. The blond pushes back swiftly, eyes searching and face more deeply flushed than before.

“Wh-what-” Roxas stammers, thumbs digging into Riku’s collarbone, “-what the hell was _that_ for?” His voice is harsh, but Riku notices that he’s not moved completely away and is still resting his weight on Riku’s lap.

“It just felt like the thing to do,” he replies, a small smile at the corner of his lips. Seeing the only response as a blank expression, his smile becomes a little wider as he tilts his head to the side slightly. “What, you’ve never done something just because you _felt_ like it before?” One of those hands is moving dangerously close to a pressure point, but he doesn’t want to stop when those eyes are flashing at him again. “Guess it’s something you need a-” Sure enough, Roxas shifts his weight forward enough so that he can begin to press his fingers into the pressure point.

“Shut _up_ , already,” Roxas says again, digging his fingers in. “Why did you even come here to this city, anyway?” Sharp pain shoots through Riku’s body, and he grits his teeth to keep from crying out. It’s hard to think when Roxas’s fingers are pressing like that, but Roxas’s weight in his lap is stirring something that’s making it hard to think in an entirely different manner. His silence only causes Roxas to increase the pressure; he has to do _something_ before the situation spirals completely out of his control.

“Don’t you even _want_ your heart?” he blurts out, words almost covering the cry of pain that comes out right before. Roxas releases the pressure from his hand immediately, and Riku gasps involuntarily, taking in air he didn’t know he needed so badly. The other boy is staring at him as if he’s expecting Riku to say more, though. “Not like what the Organization’s been telling you, your _own_ heart.” Roxas shifts his weight back, now that he apparently no longer needs to get at the pressure point; although he is silent, the blond clearly seems to be listening. Riku’s glad that Roxas isn’t going do that to get him to talk again, but all of Roxas’s weight is now resting in his lap. Riku is walking a very fine line right now, and more of his wits are leaving with every small movement that Roxas makes.

“…How?” Roxas asks, seeming to scrutinize him. He shifts slightly, and Riku has to bite his lip, hoping that his face isn’t getting as pink as it feels.

“You let me take you off this world,” he says, trying to think quickly, “and I’ll bring you to your heart.” The blond looks surprised for a moment, but quickly narrows his eyes in suspicion, leaning forward a bit and causing Riku to inhale sharply. He tries to think of something else to say, something that will get Roxas to listen to him without giving away what’s really going on with Sora; the situation is moving swiftly downhill, and he won’t be able to stop it as long as Roxas keeps moving like that.

“How do I know you-” Roxas stops abruptly, apparently confused. He moves back a bit to look at Riku critically, and Riku has to bite his lip again. Agonizingly slowly, almost calculatingly, Roxas shifts in his lap again, blue eyes not leaving his face for a second. Riku can feel his face heat up even more, and as he holds his lip in his teeth like a lifeline, he can see the flash in those blue eyes that tell him he’s been caught.

“Wait-” he begins, but is immediately interrupted.

“This is what you _really_ want, isn’t it?” Roxas snaps. “This is what you want from _him_.” Riku opens his mouth to speak, but closes it again when he sees Roxas’s harsh glare. “You’d try and fight me, you’d _lie_ to me, just like everyone else, just for _him_.” He presses down again, intentionally, punctuating each emphasized word with his hips, and Riku finds it increasingly difficult to hold in the meaningless sounds his throat wants to make, let alone make a convincing argument against Roxas’s accusations. “You’re so _pathetic_ , Riku.”

“What-” and that word really _is_ said with a gasp, “-what’s _that_ supposed to mean?” He’s not _pathetic_. He’s _not_.

“I’ve heard a lot of things about you, Riku,” Roxas says nonchalantly, moving one of his hands to toy with the bottom zipper on Riku’s coat. “I heard that you couldn’t get the Keyblade because you chose the darkness instead, and ended up destroying your world.” This conversation is… not going the way Riku had expected it would, in more ways than one. “I heard you started working for Maleficent and the Heartless and got in over your head and possessed.” Roxas slowly begins to unzip Riku’s coat upwards, but as uncomfortable as the blond’s words are making Riku, he can’t bring himself to protest against them. Now that Riku’s coat is open from his torso down, Roxas pulls his gloves off and leans forward to whisper in Riku’s ear. Riku bites his lip again, and his face feels a lot warmer than it probably should.

“I heard you were in Castle Oblivion a year ago,” Roxas presses on, slowly snaking one of his hands underneath Riku’s shirt. “I heard you were the one who killed Lexaeus,” the tip of a finger barely brushes across a nipple, and this time Riku really _does_ let out a quiet, embarrassing noise, “and that you helped kill Zexion, too.” Roxas’s breath has been hot on the shell of his ear, but it abruptly leaves as he moves away a bit, to look at Riku’s face once more. “And then you just vanished…” the blond says, almost disappointed, fingers slowly dragging back down his stomach and resting deliberately against the front of Riku’s pants, “…until I found you.” He smiles wickedly and presses his hand forward into Riku’s crotch, causing his hips to jerk and a little whimper to leave his mouth.

“And not an hour after you’ve met me, even after I beat the shit out of you, you let me do this to you. Because of _him_.” There’s that angry flash again. “It’s _pathetic_.” But Roxas’s face is still pink, and though the blond appears to be trying to seem only disgusted with him, Riku notices that he, too, has begun to breathe somewhat unevenly. And his hand is still on Riku’s pants.

“Please,” Riku whispers, though he doesn’t know exactly what for.

“Please don’t,” Roxas asks, eyes bright and arrogant once again, “or please do it again?” Nevertheless, he presses again, and Riku moans softly, before he can restrain the noise.

“ _Please_ ,” he just repeats, breath heavy now. He can’t believe he’s even saying this. Roxas seems to deliberate for a moment, studying the boy pinned under him critically.

“I want to see what your eyes look like,” The blond says finally. Riku blanches.

“I can’t,” he protests, “that’s impossible.”

“Of course it isn’t,” Roxas scoffs, reaching to remove the blindfold himself. Riku attempts to twist away, but Roxas has made very sure not to let him be able to move. The other boy starts to press closer to him once more, fingers playing with the edges of the blindfold.

“Don’t let a monster out if you’re not prepared to fight it,” Riku warns, turning his head away, and he’s uncomfortable again, having this boy talking about his blindfold.

“ _Monster_ , Riku?” Roxas laughs, and not very pleasantly, either. “You’re just a lost little boy who doesn’t know what he wants.” Riku can think of a few things he wants very badly right now, the first to put as much distance between himself and this boy as much as possible, and the second to remove as much distance as possible. He has no idea what to do.

“Pl-” But with that, Roxas interrupts him with another, swifter kiss. Riku’s surprised at first, and had been steeling himself for something very different, but now he can’t help but try and respond earnestly. He finally allows himself to move his hips upwards in order to find friction again, and is glad to realize that Roxas has been affected by their conversation in the same manner he has; the small, muffled sound the blond pushes into his mouth is just one of those signs.

And as Roxas moves his tongue into Riku’s mouth, Riku finds himself arching closer and hesitantly trying to respond in kind. But there’s no room for hesitance here, and Roxas completely overwhelms him as his boots are removed for him, his pants being pulled off before he even completely realizes that Roxas has moved his hands there again, until Roxas breaks off the kiss and Riku finds himself in only his boxers from the waist down. The blond is apparently fishing out a Potion bottle from the pocket of his coat, which has been unzipped only up to his waist, his pants underneath also unzipped but underwear still covering any skin for now. Not that Riku really expected anything other than pure functionality from this boy, but it’s still a little disappointing.

Roxas pulls Riku’s boxers off, and then, sitting between his legs, uncorks the bottle and dips a few fingers in. Riku wonders for a second what Roxas has to put the Potion on his _fingers_ for, but his question is quickly answered when the other boy brings one of them to Riku’s ass and starts to push it in. Riku inhales sharply, and… _oh_ , that stings a bit, doesn’t it? But if it’s Roxas – and Roxas is still Sora, right? – then it’s okay. Roxas lifts an eyebrow at him, but soon pushes the rest of it in and attaches his mouth to Riku’s neck.

Roxas’s mouth, kissing, _licking_ , combined with the finger slowly stretching him from inside – which is strange, but something he’s slowly getting used to – is getting to be kind of amazing. It’s actually making it really hard to think anything other than _oh god_ , but when Roxas slowly scrapes his teeth across this one spot on Riku’s neck, he can’t help but let out some nonsensical sound from the back of his throat and tighten the grip he has on the front of Roxas’s coat.

“Heh, masochist,” Roxas chuckles, breath puffing on Riku’s neck. Did he just say what Riku thought he said?

“Ah… what?” That had sounded a lot more intelligent in his head. A lot less breathy, too, but Roxas has been _doing_ things to him, and – Roxas abruptly puts a second finger in none-too-gently. “What's th- _aaa_ ahh…”

“ _Masochist_ ,” Roxas smirks triumphantly. Riku’s too busy panting and _oh god_ -ing to really argue at this point, so he just settles for letting Roxas shove his tongue down his throat again. The blond is apparently quite good at multitasking, and it’s only a few more shoves of his fingers until they brush up against a spot inside Riku that’s less _oh god_ and more _oh **fuck** , please do that again_. And Riku moans embarrassingly loudly into Roxas’s mouth and he rocks back on Roxas’s fingers when they brush up against that spot again, probably looking utterly ridiculous and shameless the whole time, but none of that really seems to matter because Roxas is pressing closer and those fingers are still moving inside of him. Roxas quickly adds a third finger, and it’s just starting to get _really_ good when the other boy just… takes them all out, for some reason.

Riku wants to protest this, and he even makes a little disappointed noise when Roxas breaks off the kiss and moves back, but then he sees Roxas push his pants and underwear down to his knees and reach for the Potion bottle again, and any urge to _complain_ leaves his thoughts entirely. Watching the other boy dip his fingers into the bottle and then coat his erection with the contents only makes Riku’s own member ache more in response.

Roxas moves closer and positions himself, but then he just stops and stares at Riku. He can feel the tip at his entrance, but the other boy isn’t moving, isn’t _doing_ anything, is just looking at Riku like he’s trying to see past the blindfold again. And Riku’s still kind of panting, and he’s so hard he can barely think straight, and he really wishes Roxas would just _move_ , or something, already. Why isn’t he _doing_ anything?

“ _Please_ ,” he finally says, like he can’t help it, and it sounds so _needy_ , but Roxas finally pushes in. Riku suddenly becomes aware of every single bruise on his body from the fight, and that… okay, that kind of hurts a bit. And it isn’t really like Riku expected anything different, so maybe he’s lucky he’s become some sort of _masochist_ , but it’s Roxas, so it’s Sora, so it’s okay, everything is okay. Roxas doesn’t really bother waiting for him to adjust, but that’s alright because now isn’t the time for gentle, so Riku makes do and tries to get used to it as quickly as he can.

Roxas spends a little time trying to find the right angle, and when he finds one that rubs against the spot in Riku that makes him arch and cry out, he doesn’t waste much time getting to a faster pace. One of his hands is gripping onto Riku’s thigh and one of them is tangled in Riku’s hair, and Riku holds onto the shelf behind him for leverage and pushes back just as hard as Roxas is pushing into him. Roxas’s head dips into the crook of Riku’s neck again, and Riku tips his head back like it’s the only thing in the world he can do. As they keep going, it slowly becomes less mouth and more teeth, breath stuttering hot on his skin, and that’s almost _better_ , somehow.

With Roxas pressing close against him like that, shoving into him with that kind of force, Roxas’s tongue and teeth – and he’s probably got bruises on his neck now, too – Riku really doesn’t think that he’s going to last much longer. And Roxas is starting to make these little noises into Riku’s collarbone, and then he bites down, and it’s only a few more sharp thrusts before he’s coming fast and hard and hot, with a low moan on his lips as his vision dissolves into static. That seems to be what pushes Roxas over the edge, right behind him, and even as he clutches close to Riku and mutters something unintelligible into his neck, Riku can feel Roxas coming inside him, but he’s so high right now that it doesn’t even _occur_ to him to think anything of it.

And then they just stay like that for a while, Roxas draped lazily on Riku as they slowly get their breathing under control, and even after Roxas pulls out, it’s only to collapse on Riku once more, chin resting on his shoulder and hand still absently on his hip. It’s so quiet compared to just a minute ago, but this is kind of nice, too, Riku supposes. Even just listening to Roxas _breathing_ is nice, and Roxas’s weight is the warmest and most comfortable thing Riku’s felt since he left home, and he smells so _familiar_ that Riku can’t help but close his eyes and sigh inaudibly. He’s so content and at peace, with the other boy laying on him like that, hair tickling his nose, that he’s already finished saying it before his brain even registers that he’s opened his mouth.

“Sora,” he breathes into Roxas’s hair, in an almost-whisper like the first time he said it here, and as Roxas starts and pushes away from him, it’s still the wrong thing to say.

“Is that _really_ what you’ve been thinking this whole time?” Roxas demands, at once offended and furious.

“Wait, So-” He was going to say _Sora_ again, _damn_ his mouth, and Roxas’s eyes flashing tell him that the other boy knows it. Riku doesn’t even _remember_ anything about what Sora’s like.

“Did you think that if you let me fuck you, that I’d suddenly turn into _him?_ ” His voice is so _sharp_ , and he wipes himself off with one of Riku’s discarded socks before putting himself back into his pants and zipping himself up, once more glaring at Riku.

“No, I-” He reaches for Roxas, but the blond just pushes him back into the shelves.

“You’re so _pathetic_ ,” Roxas says one last time, and stands up and leaves. And Riku just sits there and watches him. His back is sore and his sides are sore and his head is starting to throb again, and Riku supposes he’s going to have to take a Potion for all that later, but right now, it’s mostly a different part of him that feels bruised. Like he really expected a Nobody – even _Sora’s_ Nobody – to feel anything, to do anything different. So _stupid_.

And Riku knows that even after all this, he still has to get up and go and fight Roxas again because Sora is still asleep and is going to stay asleep until Riku brings Roxas to Twilight Town, but right now, he just doesn’t want to move very much. And when he thinks about everything, it makes him pull his coat around his legs and scrunch them up to his chest, even though he’s still sticky and only has one sock now, because his legs are getting cold. And Riku wraps his arms around his knees, tucks his head in his arms, and takes the time to silently fall apart a little bit because he just realized that he really _has_ used up the last of his innocence and that there isn’t going to be any left for Sora when he wakes up.


	2. Tape II (August 23, later/August 24, early)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Evidence of the various fights and encounters between Number XIII and the intruder Riku in the area around Memory’s Skyscraper, continuously taped, from first contact to the departure for Twilight Town.” – archivist’s notes.

Riku pulls the heavy door open, and then shuts it, swift as he can, to keep the Heartless out of the skyscraper. He’d been fighting Roxas again, and the blond had been winning, but a large group of Heartless had suddenly interfered. Sensing both Riku’s heart and Roxas’s Keyblades, the creatures had pursued the two of them relentlessly, backing them up toward the steps of the towering building. Roxas had slipped inside the skyscraper, leaving Riku with the Heartless and the task of figuring out what to do to get away from them.

Now that Riku’s within the building as well, with the Heartless safely shut outside, he looks around the inside of the skyscraper’s ground floor for Roxas. The interior, with its haphazardly-placed fluorescent lighting on a high ceiling and gunmetal-colored six-foot walls that create the illusion of a maze of giant office cubicles, seems just as desolate and unused as the rest of the city. Hearing the sound of someone trying to catch their breath from the other side of a cubicle to his right, Riku cautiously walks around the wall to see who it is.

Roxas, leaning back against the far wall with his arms dangling empty at his sides and his gaze to the ceiling, snaps his eyes back down to Riku when he hears his footfalls. When he sees that Riku’s dismissed his weapon, he seems to relax, though, and doesn’t object when Riku starts to walk towards him. There’s an unspoken sort of agreement between them, something that tells them both that whatever happens indoors is separated from what happens outside, on the street.

Honestly, though, Roxas doesn’t even really react much at all, other than with his eyes. He’s wary, but it’s not the sort of wary alertness the blond has when fighting. It’s a wariness born more of words like _Sora_ , _liar_ , and _pathetic_. And Riku doesn’t really have a good reason for why he’s approaching Roxas like this, even after the Nobody made his opinion of Riku _quite_ clear, but he just can’t seem to put the blond boy back into whatever mental box he started out in – not after what happened in the supermarket – even if he wanted to.

Maybe it really _is_ some sort of masochism, then, because it’s not like Roxas is suddenly going to get a heart all by himself, not without Sora’s help. And there’s a part of Riku that wonders if Sora will even want anything to _do_ with him after he wakes up, when Riku just continues to let himself be used up for no good reason at all – ( _no_ , with a smile) _shut ** _up_** _,_ ** _you_** don’t get to see _**__t__ _his_** – but he’s still here and Roxas is still here, so if this is still going to happen, then Riku might as well try and take charge of the situation.

The blond Nobody is silent even after Riku’s walked up to him, the two of them now only a foot or so apart. He only looks up because Riku’s physically taller, and while he makes no motion to move the hand that Riku’s placed against the wall behind him, the arm blocking off any movement to one side, he silently raises a single eyebrow in response. Well, that just makes it even _more_ obvious what Roxas thinks of him, but if Roxas isn’t going to shove him away again, then Riku’s not going to give up.

Slowly – partly because he’s trying to avoid any sudden movements that will cause Roxas to raise his guard again – Riku ducks his head down to steal a slow, careful kiss, but while Roxas is mostly unmoving, he just _barely_ moves enough in response for Riku to try and feel comfortable enough with continuing. Still, it’s only just enough that the blond doesn’t appear dead; his responses are so underwhelming that they just make Riku more unsure than if the blond had outright rejected him again. There’s something… missing in Roxas’s response, and it’s nothing like the usual things that he’d expect Roxas to be missing. Has Roxas just decided to put up with him until the next time they fight? What’s he thinking right now?

Riku breaks the kiss off reluctantly, mouth thinner than he’d like it to be and trying not to show his confusion and frustration. And Roxas doesn’t protest when Riku touches his hair lightly, or when he takes a glove off and slowly moves his hand down to Roxas’s neck, but his gaze is focused on something that Riku can’t see, something Roxas is thinking of that’s not here, not now. Something that’s not _Riku_ , that’s taking Roxas away from here.

“Your hands are cold,” Roxas says, almost a little disappointed. Riku wonders for a moment what Roxas is thinking of, but the answer soon becomes clear. It isn’t that hard to put two and two together.

“What, are you used to something different?” Riku asks, smiling like the criticism doesn’t sting him at all. He leans down, and his mouth is now only an inch or so from the shell of Roxas’s ear. The blond shivers almost imperceptibly. “You know someone with warmer hands? You want me to be more like someone else, who’s got a little more internal heat? Someone like-”

“ _You leave him out of this!_ ” Roxas bites out the words roughly, pushing Riku back and then clenching his fists tightly. His wrist twitches, like he’s trying to keep himself from summoning one of his Keyblades.

“It’s true, though, isn’t it?” Riku asks, hearing the snap in his own voice. He thought he’d gotten better at the whole jealousy thing; he probably hadn’t, considering that he couldn’t really remember why he’d been jealous the first time. Deliberately calming himself down, he continues. “You won’t care about yelling at me for saying a name you don’t like, but you’re just as bad, aren’t you?” Roxas looks at him cautiously. Riku begins to walk forward slowly, and although Roxas is still tense, he doesn’t seem like he’s going to attack.

“You’d fight me until we both collapse,” Riku lets his voice go back down to a normal volume, now that he’s not so far away anymore. “You’d try and pretend that what you do when we’re here like this doesn’t mean anything, won’t mean anything to you later.” Roxas isn’t arguing yet, at this point, but he looks like he wants to. “And you’d try and pretend that you don’t feel guilty about it,” and now he’s standing right in front of Roxas, “but you’ll still want it,” _want **me**_ , Riku thinks, “just as bad, so you’ll still give in.” Roxas looks like he’s about to deny it, but Riku knows that isn’t going to happen.

“Roxas,” he says, simply, and the violence is gone. A moment before, Roxas looked like he maybe wanted to fight him again, but now… Roxas is looking at him _now_ like Riku’s _real_. With such an abrupt change in demeanor, Riku wonders how badly Roxas wants to be real, or if he thinks that Riku saying his name will make him more real. And when Riku cradles Roxas’s face with his hand, Roxas leans into the touch, eyelids at half-mast.

“ _Roxas_ ,” he repeats in a whisper, and this time, Roxas leans forward and clutches at the front of Riku’s coat when Riku leans down to press his lips against Roxas’s. Riku tries to go as slowly as he can, wants to stretch it out and make it last forever. He wants so _badly_ to have a happily-ever-after romance he knows he doesn’t deserve, knows he probably isn’t even capable of. He knows that he and Roxas won’t have a happy ending, that whatever they think they’re doing is destined to end in tragedy, but he wants to pretend that it’s possible.

Unhurriedly, Riku continues his previously-interrupted efforts at removing Roxas’s coat and doing everything he can to keep Roxas thinking that Riku is real, that it’s possible for _Roxas_ to become real too, if he just stays with Riku. And this time, the blond doesn’t protest at all, isn’t violent or dismissive, isn’t anything besides yearning and wanting and _yes, I don’t feel so lost and wrong right now either, let’s have a happy ending for a while, please, **please**_.

The minutes seem to drift by as if they’re in a dream, even as they slowly end up sprawled on the floor, one coat spread underneath them and another off to the side. But even as the kisses slowly become more insistent and the pile of all-black clothes to the side gets larger, it doesn’t feel rushed at all. Roxas lets some of those muffled sounds out of his mouth, and his body practically _sings_ in the places Riku’s touching it. And Roxas mutters something about a Potion, so Riku has a pretty good idea of what’s going to happen next. Reaching for the bottle, Riku wonders if this time maybe _he_ could do it, so then it could be the other way around from last time, which sounds _really_ promising. It can’t be _that_ difficult, he’s sure, and all he has to do is –

“You’re doing it wrong,” Roxas says, irritated.

“…What?” Riku falters, and that image of Roxas looking at him just a few minutes before, like he was someone _important_ , is gone, and Riku is unsure and hesitant all over again.

“You’re doing it the wrong way,” the blond repeats, slowly, like he just thinks Riku is _dumb_ now.

“Isn’t this what you were doing?” Riku asks, trying to sound confident, wondering just how obvious it is that he does not, in fact, really know what he’s doing.

“It _hurts_ if you don’t do it right,” Roxas explains, looking as if he’s almost at the end of his patience. And to Riku, for some reason, that seems like a strange thing to say.

“…I thought it always hurt,” Riku mumbles, avoiding Roxas’s gaze. And isn’t that what happens when you make yourself that vulnerable, when you open yourself that much, like- _no_. He’s _not_ going to think about that right now. It wasn’t like that – it _wasn’t_ , that was _different_ – and he doesn’t want to start to let himself think that it was. He wants to keep that as far away from Roxas as possible. Roxas, who is now staring at him like he’s grown an extra head. The blond seems slightly uncomfortable.

“Well… not everyone is a _masochist_ like you, Riku,” Roxas says, after a short pause, seeming to have recovered himself. He removes Riku’s finger from inside him with one of his hands. “Give me the Potion; I’ll do it. Just… pay attention.”

Roxas takes the bottle from his hands, and even if Riku _wanted_ to look away at this point, he doesn’t think he could. Watching Roxas move his finger in and out of himself, one of his toes brushing up unconsciously against Riku’s thigh, it’s something that makes Riku’s breath catch in his throat a little. And when Roxas’s own breath starts to hitch, Riku watches his eyes flutter and his lip catch between his teeth momentarily. When Roxas’s eyelids flutter back open, he looks halfway between annoyed and amused.

“Watch my _fingers_ , Riku; I’m not going to demonstrate this again,” Roxas says, mouth in a little frown but cheeks heated and pink. Still, Riku listens and brings his gaze back to Roxas’s fingers and their movements.

Riku might’ve thought that it was over with too quickly, but by the time Roxas’s fingers have finished with their assigned task, both of them are _more_ than ready for what’s going to happen next. Roxas takes his fingers out, dips them into the Potion bottle again, and reaches to coat Riku with the contents – it’s not something Riku had been expecting him to do, so there’s a tiny, surprised edge to his moan – with breathing that’s already starting to become labored. And Roxas moves him to where he’s supposed to go, guides him gently in, and it’s so indescribable that _Roxas_ is his only thought in those moments.

The pupils in Roxas’s eyes are so huge right now, staring like he’s trying to see through the thin strip of black fabric on Riku’s face again. One of his hands is still partially between his legs, and the other’s wrapping around the back of Riku’s neck to pull him closer; his empty chest heaves in time with Riku’s own, flawed one when their lips meet again in a deliberate, deep kiss.

And it really _is_ different from this side of things, what’s happening now, or maybe it’s also partly because it’s not quite as violent as the last time. That’s not to say that Roxas is pulling any of his metaphorical punches – because with the way he’s rolling his hips, that’s really _not_ the issue here – but he’s letting Riku keep things more purposeful, less agitated, for the time being. Riku watches the way Roxas pulls him closer when he whispers the blond’s name into his ear again, the way he looks at Riku like he’s gotten _real_ again.

Slowly – or just as slow as everything else is at this point since, really, Riku is only human – he catches one of Roxas’s hands in his own and, before the blond really has time to think about what Riku’s doing, brings it close to rest against his chest. Even though it’s selfish and stubborn and childish, he still wants to pretend there could be some sort of happy ending. Roxas doesn’t seem ready to admit he wants that kind of thing too, but Riku can _tell_ , somehow, that he does. Riku wonders how much of what’s under his hand Roxas can feel, if _he_ knows what any of it actually means. He wants Roxas to know what it _feels_ like, even if he can’t put a name to what it is, and if Roxas can’t use the heart he’s supposed to share with Sora yet, then Riku will just have to try and show Roxas what it’s like through his own.

“But I- that’s not,” there’s a gasp for breath, “ _possible_ , why would you-” Roxas cuts himself off, eyes wide and almost bewildered-looking. Then, quieter and a thousand times more anxious, “I don’t _understand_.” But he sounds like he _wants_ to understand, which only makes Riku’s pulse beat faster. And even though Riku doesn’t understand most of it, himself, Roxas needs to know that whatever’s happened between them, whatever’s happening _right now_ , isn’t random, isn’t as meaningless as Roxas might want to think. It’s something Riku can’t really put into words, something with language and shapes and colors that dance out of his reach whenever he tries to pin it down.

Roxas looks almost delicate as his eyes search Riku’s face, his eyebrows draw together, and his mouth parts just slightly. He looks like he’s going to shatter into a thousand pieces if Riku doesn’t do something, so Riku keeps his hand where it is, but leans forward and slowly dips his tongue into Roxas’s mouth. He watches as Roxas’s eyes close, feels Roxas’s other hand push down on his back as Riku finally lets his hips start moving with a purpose again.

But Roxas is more desperate now, and Riku feels a little desperate, too, so it’s not really all that long until Riku’s idea of slow has been forgotten and they’re something more frantic than delicate. And Roxas starts to make these needy little sounds into Riku’s mouth, wordless noises jumbled around their tongues and spilling out from reddened lips when Riku moves his mouth to suck at Roxas’s earlobe. And Roxas’s fingernails are scratching lines on his back that make Riku hiss and Roxas make another half-gasped comment about how he’s still a masochist, but Riku doesn’t really mind that so much anymore. And then Roxas makes another noise with his lips parted inches from Riku’s own, clutching and yearning again, so Riku pushes their mouths together as Roxas tumbles into a quiver, Riku himself following just a few moments later.

After a bit, Riku notices that he’s still holding onto Roxas’s hand, so he finally – and a bit reluctantly – lets go of it. Roxas lets it linger there for a moment, then brings it down to remove Riku from inside of him and try and haphazardly clean himself off a little with… well, Riku’s got his boots, so he figures he didn’t really need his other sock, anyway. And Riku lies down next to where Roxas is and thinks that maybe this can last for a little longer if he just keeps praying for it to happen, but it’s unfortunately not long at all before _that_ thought is interrupted.

Roxas starts to turn like he wants to move away, to just get up and _leave_ again, so Riku wraps his arms around Roxas’s waist when the blond rolls to the side, effectively spooning him. There’s the selfish want for a fairytale ending again, or at least something that feels a little less impersonal, but that’s more wishful thinking than anything else. Mostly, Riku just doesn’t want to feel like he’s been used and then abandoned again.

“Just for a little while?” he whispers into Roxas’s ear. “At least until I fall asleep?” Roxas doesn’t say anything, just sighs quietly and relaxes into Riku’s arms. He smells like the City, and like boy-sweat, but underneath it, Roxas smells like the ocean, somehow.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

When he wakes up the next morning, Roxas is gone, but half of Riku’s coat has been draped over his body, the scent of the other boy lingering on the leather like an idea half-formed and just out of reach. There’s an insulated silence throughout the building, so it must’ve stopped raining sometime last night. Fingering the edge of the coat absently, Riku takes another slow breath and allows himself a small, private smile; strangely, he doesn’t feel upset at all.


	3. Tape III (August 24, final/August 27, interrupted)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Evidence of the various fights and encounters between Number XIII and the intruder Riku in the area around Memory’s Skyscraper, continuously taped, from first contact to the departure for TwilightTown.” – archivist’s notes

The cold of the stairs to the skyscraper, metal digging sharply into his back, and the warmth of Roxas pressed close against him, eyes focused intently on Riku’s face, combine with each other in Riku in a way that takes him less time to appreciate and more time to understand than he’d thought those two sensations would. They’d been fighting, and Roxas’d had Riku pinned again, but it’d only taken a few seconds for the both of them to reach for each other, like a reflex neither of them knew they had until just then. Now, Roxas is kissing him like the building’s going to fall over if he doesn’t push so closely and help Riku hold it up.

A scratching sound from somewhere behind Roxas tells Riku that some of the Heartless have appeared again, but Roxas only detaches for a moment to materialize Oblivion in his hand and swing back roughly at a few pairs of yellow eyes. There’re several puffs of black smoke, and then the blond dismisses his weapon, turning back to Riku once more with his teeth on Riku’s collarbone. It’s only a few moments more before Roxas has his thigh between Riku’s legs and Riku’s breath loud in the relative silence, but that silence is relatively short, and the rain starts to fall again with staticky sounds on the metal of the buildings. With a noise that would almost be a growl in a boy not quite so short, Roxas jerks Riku by the arm up the stairs and through the entrance of the skyscraper, shoving the door shut behind them with his shoulder.

Almost immediately after they get inside, Roxas shoves him against the wall of the cubicle, and Riku pulls Roxas closer to him when the blond puts his tongue back in Riku’s mouth. They’d tried doing things more slowly last time, but it’s more comfortable for both of them like this. Roxas knows what he’s doing and is good at pushing in just the right places, and Riku’s good at being a fast learner and pretending he knows everything already. Though Riku obligatorily tries to get Roxas to be the one against the cubicle wall for a little bit, that doesn’t last long, either, and Roxas just flips them back the other way with a flush, another low noise in his throat, and a hand against parts of Riku that speed up his breathing to an almost embarrassing degree.

Riku doesn’t know why it’s suddenly become so difficult for them to keep their hands off of each other. The fight-outside-sex-inside rule’s been getting fuzzy around the edges and the division between the violence and the inexplicable longing has become too blurred to define clearly. Riku knows by now that life and people can’t get put into neat either/or categories, but knowing it doesn’t make it any easier to figure out the question of _why_.

There’s a tug on Riku’s coat, so he lets Roxas lead him around the corner to where they were the night before. It’s less than a minute before the tugging becomes specifically _tugging off_. One of Riku’s socks sits lonely in a far corner, but neither of them even notices that it’s there. With another good shove or two – and Roxas _really_ likes pinning Riku against things, doesn’t he? – Riku’s sitting slouched against the wall with Roxas straddling his lap, the other boy grinding his hips and biting Riku’s lip for him, one hand tangled in Riku’s hair and the other fingerprinting bruises and little crescent-shaped marks across Riku’s skin.

“You’d…” here, Roxas pauses for a slightly gasped breath, “…better have been paying attention last time.” And Riku’s about to protest that comment, but Roxas just grinds again before pausing briefly to put a bottle into Riku’s hand rather forcefully and affixing his mouth to the spot behind Riku’s earlobe, so of course Riku completely loses his train of thought. He uncorks the bottle to get the Potion on his fingers and hopes to some vague higher power that he’s getting it right, but Roxas doesn’t make any complaints; the blond just presses himself closer to Riku with a softly moaned affirmation. Moving with Riku’s fingers, he presses his mouth against Riku’s again, arches with what could almost be a _whine_ when Riku finds the right places before promptly going back down once more.

It’s near-indescribable, how utterly _breathtaking_ Roxas is right now, hair sticking to his face, brows together and skin flushed, mouth and hands busy, hips constantly in motion around Riku’s fingers. And Riku’s trying to make sure he’s doing things the right way, but his senses are filled so much by things that are _Roxas_ and the knowledge that _Riku’s_ the one causing Roxas to move like that, to look that way, that it’s starting to short-circuit his brain. Since thinking doesn’t seem to be working at the moment, what ends up happening is that Riku just tries to move his fingers in whatever way makes Roxas the loudest.

“Okay, that’s… _aah_ …that should be enough,” Roxas says after a while. Riku only interprets it as language because Roxas is tugging for him to move his hand out of the way; he’s so out of it from all the other things Roxas has been doing and trying not to mess it all up that it’s almost a surprise to hear that he’s done so soon. And Roxas notices it but doesn’t say anything, just waits for Riku to finish moving his fingers away. The blond lifts his hips up, lets Riku arrange himself, sinks back down with a sigh as his lips part, his lashes flutter, and his hand tightens its grip in Riku’s hair.

Roxas sets the pace to _oh god_ , keeps moving with his knees pressing in towards Riku from both sides, and Riku just keeps up as best he can. But it’s not just _keeping up_ , it’s that Riku feels like the blond Nobody is almost trying to _show_ him how to keep up, telling him when it’s necessary but expecting Riku to figure it out himself most of the time. It’d be a little embarrassing if he stopped to think about it, but right now, Riku just tries to go with it because Roxas seems to have his patience still, for the time being. The way Roxas puts his tongue back in Riku’s mouth like it’s always been there, the way his fingers scratch foreign patterns on Riku’s arms, the way he just keeps getting louder because they’re the only ones here in the rain-neon-moonlight-drenched City, let alone _building_ … it makes Riku think that maybe there’s something actually there. Maybe it won’t matter what’s going on outside and who’s fighting who, maybe they can actually do something that’ll work. Or maybe they can’t once this is over, but right _now_ , right at this moment, maybe they _can_ , and Riku believes it and maybe Roxas believes it, too.

And if Riku actually remembers later what he’s thinking now, if he doesn’t talk himself out of it later, he can convince Roxas and then it won’t just be here and now that things could start to be okay, and everything with Sora and Roxas will work itself out somehow, and everything will be okay. Maybe they actually _make_ things okay. And Roxas pushes down up downupdown, says something incoherent in response to Riku’s equally incoherent words he only notices he’s let out of his mouth after, but he thinks in that moment, Roxas _understands_.

But it’s over too soon. It’s _always_ over too soon. Riku doesn’t want to think about what happens when _too soon_ starts to mean _not forever_. There’s a slow, lingering kiss, and Riku thinks that it might be the last one. Something about that _hurts_ , but he doesn’t think there’s anything he can do about it.

“Next time is the last time,” Roxas says, Riku’s arms wrapped around him.

“Yeah,” Riku agrees. This delay, this… he doesn’t know what to call it – Riku can barely put Roxas into _words_ anymore, let alone _categories_ – can’t go on any longer. Sora’s waiting to be woken up. Riku wonders if repeating Sora’s name endlessly in his head will make him remember more about the brunet boy sleeping behind glass, but all that seems to do is pull Roxas away from him. But Sora is still asleep and needs Riku to do this in order to wake up, so there’s going to be another fight.

“You’re going to lose,” Roxas murmurs, looking down, his fingers threading absently through Riku’s hair. Riku knows what he might have to do in order to win.

“No,” he responds, sadly, “I’m not.” Roxas’s hand curls at the base of his neck. The rest of the world is outside this building, but Riku doesn’t want to go there just yet.

And later, outside once more, they fight for the last time.

“Quit for real or quit messing around,” Roxas snaps, irritated, when they’ve fallen into their old routine of violence and the blond is starting to push Riku back with his Keyblades once again. Riku’s already got a few cuts on his arm from the fact that he’s too tired to keep his Dark Shield up for more than a few seconds each time, and his knee is aching from the luckily-glancing blow it received a few minutes earlier. So Roxas is getting impatient about ending this last fight. Riku wonders what Roxas is planning to do if he wins. Just kill him outright, bring him to the Organization, leave him for the Heartless? Riku laughs at the snapped comment, but hopes that it’s the first option.

“Come on, Sora, giving up already?” Riku asks, and pretends that he’s teasing with an old, familiar joke. Somewhere, Roxas should _know_ those words; even if neither of them can really remember Sora, Riku himself can’t forget the way he felt then, not when it’s been carved as deeply as it has been into his memory. “I guess _that’s_ what’s pathetic.” He can see Roxas’s eyes flash, but if this is the last fight, Riku isn’t going to _mess around_ or hold _anything_ back; he’s going to put everything he’s got into this, before… _everything_ else.

“ _You’re_ the one who’s losing right now,” The blond retorts, then stops abruptly and puts a hand to his mouth like he didn’t think it was possible for him to respond that way. Something about this all this feels hauntingly, _achingly_ familiar – and there’s also something he feels that might be awe, as well – but Riku can’t quite place it.

“You really _are_ his Nobody, aren’t you?” So Riku really _can’t_ afford to lose. He has to –

“Shut _up_ about him!” Roxas shouts, hair-trigger furious again, a Keyblade slamming roughly into Riku and sending him back a good ten feet with the wind knocked out of him. “I’m myself! I’m _me!_ ” Riku clutches onto his ribs as his knee buckles, temporarily ceasing to hold him up properly. He has to – “And you’re _not_ going to beat me, no matter _how_ many times you try!” There aren’t any other options because Riku is going to lose this fight if he doesn’t do it, and no matter what else happens, he _can’t_ lose, so he _has_ to –

“I guess… I don’t have any choice but to do it, then,” Riku says with a self-deprecating laugh, mostly to himself. He’s half-crouched right now and still trying to catch his breath, probably due to more than just the physical exertion.

“…Do what?” Looking up at his opponent, the blond seems cautious, confused but alert. With a wince at the sharp pain that shoots up from his knee and through his ribs, Riku stands back up again.

“The power sitting in my heart,” he responds, ignoring the pain – and it occurs to Riku that there might be something very wrong with his knee that’ll take at _least_ a Hi-Potion to fix, more likely an Elixir just to make sure it doesn’t heal wrong and necessitate later rebreaking – and the small, smiling voice that’s growing increasingly pleased by this turn of events, and begins pulling and dragging his legs to keep walking forward towards Roxas, “the darkness suppressed by my heart.” Roxas stays focused on Riku, but doesn’t move to attack again. “Even if I have to stay like that forever…” _If I do this, then_ …

“What are you _talking_ about?” Roxas half asks, half demands. Riku takes his blindfold off. For a short space of time, Roxas’s eyes are like two brilliant beacons, gleaming all the brighter now that there’s no longer that strip of black fabric obscuring Riku’s eyes. There’s a tiny, childish part of Riku that he blocks out, that can’t _stand_ that this is all they’re going to get, maybe all they deserve to get, but he’s mostly just sad that they weren’t able to make it last any longer.

“Goodbye,” Riku says, smiling for a fraction of a second. _I’m sorry_ , he wants to say, but the words get stuck in his throat. Something flits across Roxas’s face in that instant, but then it’s gone again, and Riku doesn’t know what it was. He doesn’t even know which boy he’s _talking_ to, really. Maybe it’s both of them. He just knows that neither one of them is ever going to see him again, if Riku can help it. Giving in again… he doesn’t think he could stand the looks on anyone’s faces if they knew what he’d done.

And then, with a yell, the change begins. Distantly, Riku hears the metal sounds of Roxas’s Keyblades sliding past one another. Does Roxas even know what’s happening? Does he just not care? Riku’s feet aren’t even touching the ground anymore, even though they’re not _his_ feet – and the mere _thought_ of what he has just become makes Riku want to throw up, but he’ll have to wait until this is done, first – and he sees Roxas brace for an attack, but the fight is already over.

He warps forward suddenly to the space right in front of Roxas, the Guardian at his back grabbing the blond boy by the arms and lifting him into the air, squeezing until the Keyblades drop and vanish. Roxas struggles, but soon falls unconscious, and the Guardian releases him. Roxas falls to the ground. _I didn’t want to, at first, but…_

In a voice both foreign and _far_ too familiar, “I’ve accepted it.” Riku’s won. It still feels like a betrayal.

Riku pulls the hood over his – _no, not_ **_mine_** ; _not_ , he feels a little sick still – face, just in time for DiZ to appear, making a few degrading remarks about Roxas and Nobodies in general. DiZ is the one, he thinks, that doesn’t understand things. Bending down to lift the unconscious boy into his arms, deliberately restraining himself from brushing the hair away from Roxas’s face, Riku follows DiZ back to Twilight Town.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

 _There’s a knock on the door._

 _“What is it?”_

 _“…Oh, working on that still?”_

 _“Yes. Research.”_

 _“Of course.”_

 _“The situation with…?”_

 _“No progress, unfortunately.”_

 _“I see. The meeting is in a few hours, is it not?”_

 _“Yes.”_

 _“Anything else?”_

 _“No.”_

 _“Thank you, Saïx. Now, if you’ll excuse me…”_

 _“…Yes, sir. Until the meeting, then?”_

 _“Until the meeting.”_

 _The door closes again_.


End file.
